Earl Norman

The Earl Norman books are becoming extremely rare, and publishers don’t seem to be interested in reprinting the series. The only way some of us may ever have all the stories is for collectors to scan and type the stories into PDF to swap with other collectors. I have already completed PDFs of HANG ME IN HONG KONG and KILL ME IN ROPPONGI. I am working on KILL ME IN YOKOSUKA. If other collectors would do the same for some of the other books, we could eventually have PDFs of all ten books. Why not help? I can be contacted at fadingshadows40@gmail.com

Monday, August 8, 2016

Jade Lady Burning

Sueno & Bascom #1:
“Jade Lady Burning” by Martin Limon. Army CID agents, Sgt. George Sueno and
Sgt. Ernie Bascom work out of 8th Army Headquarters in Seoul, South
Korea. When a young prostitute is found murdered, her body sexually brutalized,
and the room set fire, the Korean National Police want an American GI blamed,
though they seem to know who the killer really is. The American system wants to
point to a young soldier, also. But CID agent Sgt. Sueno doesn’t like the
smell, and thinks an American soldier is being set up to take the fall. Before
the case is over, the investigation goes to the top command, and girls are
killed, and Sueno and Bascom find themselves at the wrong end of the stick.

In the end, Sueno and Bascom are split up, with Sueno
shipped to the DMZ, and we’re told they never work together again. This should
have been a stand-alone novel. Yet the book must have caught on, and the
publisher asked for more, for they’re back in the next book, and the next, and
next and next. I did thoroughly enjoy the story, though it was slow and could
have used more action.

Sgt. Sueno narrates the story and Bascom appears to merely
be a sounding board. Or maybe he’s there just as a drinking partner. The best
part about this book is its setting, South Korea. It’s a different world than
anywhere else. It’s where crime starts from the top and works its way down, and
when it’s too high, there is no way to police it. I was with the MPs in Korea,
and knew many CID agents in Korea and elsewhere. Sueno and Bascom didn’t sound
like any I had ever ran into. The CID I knew were always a tad above the rest
of us GIs, and would not act in the manner these characters did. But this is
fiction, and the characters are part fact and part false. They start sounding
more like hard drinking private detectives after a while, not straight shooters
trained by military intelligence. But I definitely plan on reading more stories
featuring Sueno & Bascom.